Preserving History
The Historic Peninsula can protect its legacy through an integrated traffic plan. Photo by ugurcana.
"The Historic Areas of Istanbul World Heritage site is a large and complex property suffering significant problems of inner-city decay and neglect.
The lack of a single vision for the World Heritage property is reflected in the absence of any integrated Traffic Plan...
The mission recommends that a Traffic/ Transport Plan is prepared as a component of the overall World Heritage Management Plan."
–Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, UNESCO
Heavy traffic poses a serious threat to the infrastructure and cultural legacy of Istanbul’s Historic Peninsula, the old city center that holds 8,500 years of human history.
In May 2008, Sibel Bulay, director of SUM-Türkiye, met with a team from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and stressed the need for sustainable transport infrastructure to safeguard the authenticity of the Historic Peninsula and maintain the area's nearly 25-year status as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
As a result of EMBARQ’s initiative, UNESCO formally recommended that the Turkish government develop an integrated “Transport Plan,” with an emphasis on improving mass transit, as part of the overall “World Heritage Management Plan” for Istanbul. This is the first time that the negative impact of traffic on Istanbul’s historic infrastructure has been officially acknowledged, not only by UNESCO but also by the Turkish government, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality.
Following up on this game-changing development, SUM-Türkiye is partnering with Istanbul’s Department of Environmental Protection to propose the creation of a “low emissions zone” on the Historic Peninsula, a project to be undertaken sometime in 2009.
